A VITAL service to small internet businesses will be lost if Cromer Road post office in Sheringham closes under the controversial plans to axe branches across Norfolk.

A VITAL service to small internet businesses will be lost if Cromer Road post office in Sheringham closes under the controversial plans to axe branches across Norfolk.

Mail-order and eBay entrepreneurs who send items ranging from gardening equipment for the Queen to cosmetic products, from the post office on Cromer Road will have to find alternative ways to send large parcels and high volumes of mail - with some saying they will use private couriers.

Simon Drummond, who runs the thriving internet business, Get Digging, and has supplied gardening equipment to the royal family and the Royal Horticultural Society, said that he would not be able to walk through the post office in the town, in Starlings toy shop, with large pieces of gardening equipment.

He has used West Runton in the past but they made it clear to him that he was a nuisance, meaning that if Cromer Road closes he will look for a private courier, he said.

Such moves not only will affect the small businesses that use the post office, but with people resorting to private sector couriers the Royal Mail Group, which includes the Post Office, Royal Mail and Parcel Force, would lose revenue from people taking their business elsewhere.

Subpostmaster Andrew Worsdale said the only point the Post Office kept making was the proximity to the other post office in Sheringham, but that didn't take into account that his is a growing business.

He is still on the campaign trail, and spends much of his spare time leaflet dropping in a clown suit.

He hopes to have single-handedly leaflet dropped every house in Sheringham by June 2, the closing date of the consultation, to encourage people to write letters.